2010 Contract for Air Sustainment Servicesto the Middle East Area of Operations

Defence has entered into a two year contract with Adagold Aviation Pty Ltd for the provision of air sustainment services to the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO). The contract was signed on 22 October 2010 and will commence on 23 November 2010.

The rumor is that Adagold may use Hi Fly with a Airbus 340-500.As Adagold is a BNE based company we may assume the aircraft would be BNE based.

From December to March on Saturdays a new flight will operate out of BNE at 0930 and returning at 1530.This will be operated by 737 along with the other daily flights which are operated by E-190'S.2 flights on a Saturday and daily on the other days.

MANILA - Philippine Airlines (PAL) is realigning its Australian operations starting with the temporary suspension of flights to and from Brisbane effective October 31, 2010.

Consequently, the flag carrier’s five times a week flights to Melbourne will be adjusted to thrice weekly, while flights to Sydney – one of PAL’s most popular Australian destinations – remains unaffected with five times (5x) weekly services, PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said.

In a news release, Villaluna said the decision to temporarily halt Brisbane services was due to marketing considerations.

Passengers to be affected by the flight realignments shall be properly notified byPAL’s contact center and advised on the best options to proceed to their respective destinations, she said.

Villaluna stressed that Australia remains an important market for Philippine Airlines. Recognizing the route’s growth potential, she reiterated PAL’s long-term commitment to the island-continent. She stressed, however, that market conditions and the onset of the lean season necessitated some changes in the number of destinations and frequency of flights the flag carrier mounts to Australia.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

It is pushing ahead with a targeted network expansion after the Australian regulator recently granted it a three-year unrestricted air operators certificate.

The full-service niche carrier had been operating on a restricted 12-month AOC issued when it started operations last year and sees the Civil Aviation Safety Authority as a seal of approval for its safety performance.

"We're really happy about that," head of commercial Damien Vasta said yesterday. "It gives our market a little bit more confidence that they're dealing with a more established Australian carrier that's got a clean bill of health from CASA."

The airline, which has three Airbus A320s and a wide-body A330 registered in Australia, currently flies from Perth to Derby and Denpasar as well as Brisbane-Port Hedland-Denpasar.

It plans to start a Brisbane-Townsville-Denpasar in December and is planning direct east coast-Bali flights after recently winning additional capacity to Indonesia from Australian gateway airports in a three-way tussle with Qantas and Virgin.

The International Air Services Commission gave Strategic 1514 seats -- the biggest share of the 4000 seats available to the three airlines -- on the grounds it would help promote competition.

Mr Vasta said Strategic had enjoyed a strong response to the its existing services and said passenger traffic to Bali had risen from 400,000 people a year two years to more than a million.

"It's not just Perth, the east coast has gone crazy for Bali again -- they seem to have fallen in love with it," he said. "We just thought that while the sun's shining we'll make hay and we'll put the A330 on some of those east coast direct services. And if we get the capacity to do it we'll be able to offer Melbourne and potentially Brisbane direct."

The new carrier is now looking at potentially acquiring a second A330 and has applied for capacity to Thailand with idea of filling the void left by V Australia when the Virgin Blue long-haul carrier redeploys its Boeing 777 aircraft.

Other potential destinations include Ho Chi Minh City and Honolulu.

Strategic also runs a charter operation using three A320s in Europe and has just successfully transferred its base from France to Luxembourg

Monday, October 11, 2010

AMSA Do328 VH-PPJ has been busy along with Customs Dash 8's VH-ZZB and VH-ZZP the past few days out of BNE .Bizjet N360SL CL600 and New Biz VH-WIO a Falcon 2000EX have been in.Also new B200 for RFDS was in today.VH-FDS was the reg.

Also yesterday French Air Force CN-235 flew in and out of YBBN.No tail number advised.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

QantasLink today announced an expanded flying schedule covering the key Queensland mining destinations of Emerald, Moranbah and Roma from 18 October 2010.

QantasLink Executive Manager, Mr Narendra Kumar, said the increased capacity was in anticipationof growing demand from the mining and resource sectors.

“QantasLink is very pleased to be able to support the Queensland economy and in particular cater tothe changing needs of these communities,” he said.

“We have consulted with the mining industry, and have added some ongoing extra capacity andsome peak period capacity which will operate from 18 October-18 December.”

The new flights will add more than 706 seats per week across the three destinations during thisperiod, including:- an increase from 27 to 30 weekly return Brisbane-Emerald services , operating on Sundays,Mondays and Thursdays, adding 396 seats to the route each week;- an increase from 15 to 18 weekly return Brisbane-Roma services, operating on Mondays,Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, adding 216 seats to the route each week; and- one additional Brisbane-Moranbah return service, increasing the number of return services on theroute each week to 12, adding 94 seats to the route each week.

Mr Kumar added that 28 out of 30 weekly return services on the Brisbane-Emerald route would beoperated by the new 74-seat Q400 aircraft. In addition, 15 of the 18 weekly return Roma services and11 of 12 weekly Moranbah services would be operated by the 50-seat Q300 aircraft.

QantasLink has invested over $600 million in 21 new Q400 aircraft since 2006 and recentlyannounced acquisition of seven next-generation Q400 aircraft to commence delivery from early 2011.These aircraft will operate alongside the airline’s fleet of five Q200, 16 Q300 and 11 B717 aircraft,currently providing around 2000 flights each week to 54 metropolitan and regional destinationsthroughout Australia and to Papua New Guinea.

MRTT003 doing a taxy past the viewing area this morning prior to a heavy rain shower.This aircraft has spent many months at BNE being worked on.Notice the boom at the rear for this tanker.It should be off to France in the next week justlike the previous ones.